My car has 38 years of grime on the engine and it's getting hard to see where things start and end in there. And when I'm under it, I've got stuff constantly falling on me. Obviously goggles are a must as well as keeping my mouth shut while I'm below. Anyone recommend a cleaner and method of tackling this?

 

Power washer, or a case of brakeKleen. Just remember to mind ALL electrical parts. Let it dry out a day or 2 either way.

I am doing the opposite....
Trying to see how thick I can build the gunk out before can of soda sized chunks start falling off.

 

I like the pressure washer method, but you have to take care on the wiring and electrical components. You might even remove them for the cleaning. This involves the least amount of elbow grease....so to speak.

I like the idea of a case of brakecleen but it evaporates so fast I might use carb cleaner instead. It lingers around a little longer. I do like the product SuperClean. It works but you will have to do some scrubbing. A gallon can go a long way when mixed/reduced with water in squirt bottles.

In any case, you'll need some old tooth brushes or small wire brushes and some scotch brite. In fact, I had a cheap rain suit for crawling around under neath when doing this. It does take a lot of elbow grease but can be accomplished.

When you're done, you'll have a new coating............of rust.

 

I like good ol' Simple Green, that stuff is a great grease cutter. One more caution about the power washer, the pressure can rip/shred/break off rubber boots on 38 year old ball joints or rubber stoppers in the frame rails or on body panels.

 

I just did my car yesterday. To the self service car wash with my creeper, 1 can of carb cleaner- takes most everything off, 1 can of electric cleaner- takes everything off, including loose paint and one can of foamy gunk and the high pressre sprayer. A piece of foil crumpled around the dist cap, voltage reg. and no direct power spray on harnesses ect and it is shiny clean now with no problems starting or running.

 

I agree with Simple Green, Gunk or the equivalent but Carb cleaner and brake cleaner will eat through paint, at least this has been my experience. When using Gunk I spray the engine when it is warm and use a parts cleaning brush to lossen the rough stuff. Simple Green I use on a cold engine. The pressure washer just needs to be used with common sense, use one with heat if you can. The last thing is to take a screw driver and a can of compressed air to blow out the distributor cap if you can't get it started after washing it.

 

Simple Green or auto parts store engine degreaser would be the way to go. Just make sure you don't use a pressure washer and spray the distributor. It would also be a bad idea to remove the spark plugs and spray into the cylinders with the power washer wand.

 

I like the purple stuff like Simple Green and foamy engine cleaner to start, buckets of hot water, lots of rags, wooden sticks and paint stirrers dont gouge the steel, lots of parts cleaning and tooth brushes. I spent weeks cleaning the grease off my engine and laying under the car doing the underbody, just a dirty nasty job, Vista Cruisers are big. I got a little kids wading pool and put it under the engine to catch all the toxic stuff then bottled it up and took it to the county haz-mat drop-off. I think the oil fill tube in the front of the engine is the culprit for a lot of the grease, I don't miss the old metal oil cans and dripping push-in spouts. I decided to pull the engine anyway and then got a 4 post lift, sort of bass-akwards.

Allan

 

Vista Cruisers are a decent sized car. The Custom Cruisers are big cars.

That is cool that you dumped the waste at the county haz-mat office. I know alot of times car guys don't think of the stuff that comes out of their toy.

 

Oven cleaner, believe it or not, works also, but you can't leave it on for very long.